Hurricane Hermine Makes Landfall in Florida, Flood Fears Rise

NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured a visible image of the hurricane at 3:15 p.m. EDT on Sept. 1 that shows a much more organized Hermine with bands of thunderstorms wrapping around its low-level center and blanketing the entire state of Florida. (Rex Features via AP Images)

Hurricane Hermine hit the Florida coast early Friday, bringing high winds, flooding, and power outages.

Hermine, which hit land east of St. Marks in the state's Big Bend area, was the first hurricane to hit Florida since Hurricane Wilma in 2005, The Associated Press reported. It weakened to a tropic storm as it moved inland to southern Georgia.

Officials used high-water vehicles to rescue people in Pasco County, Florida, where high water forced about 20 residents from their homes in Green Key and Hudson Beach.

"There is a lot of flooding, a lot of trees down, but nothing life-threatening," Tambrey Laine, a spokeswoman for Pasco County, told NBC News.

About 200,000 residents were without power in Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina.

Hermine made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, CNN reported. As the storm weakened, tropical storm warnings remained in effect for parts of the Florida Gulf Coast through North Carolina. A tornado watch was also in effect in parts of Florida and Georgia.

Tallahassee braced for the possibly of up to 15 inches of rain over the weekend, while areas of Georgia could see 10 inches of rain.

In eastern Georgia and the Carolinas, "flash flooding and river flooding will be the biggest story over the next 48 hours," NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins said.

At a news conference Thursday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott urged residents to take caution and heed warnings. He said 6,000 National Guard members were ready to be mobilized, if necessary, and state offices were closed in 51 of Florida's 67 counties, where the governor declared a state of emergency.

"We have a hurricane," Scott said. "You can rebuild a home. You can rebuild property. You cannot rebuild a life."